Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor
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| Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor | |
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Governor of Las Californias
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| In office 1800 – 1800 |
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| Preceded by | Diego de Borica |
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| Succeeded by | José Joaquín de Arrillaga |
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| Born | January 30, 1747 Tortosa, Catalonia, Spain |
| Died | March 11, 1802 (aged 55) Monterrey, California, New Spain |
| Spouse | Juana Vélez |
| Profession | Explorer, soldier |
Pere d'Alberní i Teixidor (January 30, 1747 – March 11, 1802) was a Catalan soldier who served the Spanish Crown for almost all his life. He developed the major part of his military career in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It is especially remarkable his role in the military history of New Spain, in the Spanish conquest and colonization of the Pacific Northwest in the 1790s, and his later proclamation as interim governor of California in 1800.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Pere d'Alberní was born on January 30, 1747, to a noble and wealthy family of Tortosa, Catalonia, Spain. His father, Jaume d'Alberní i Antolí, was notary public and Honourable Citizen of Barcelona who had married Maria Inés Teixidor on June 24, 1728. The couple had five sons and two daughters. In accordance to Catalan civil law, the oldest brother, Josep Antoni, was named heir to the Alberní state. This also included the right to use the title of notary public. The remaining siblings received a small amount of money. For this reason, the rest of the brothers joined the military service. One brother, Gerònim, went to the Regiment of Córdoba; the other two, Joan Bautista and Jaume Pascual, joined the Foreign Volunteer Regiment. One of the sisters became a nun. Pere joined Spain's Second regiment of the Light Infantry in July 17, 1762 to fight as cadet in the campaign of Portugal during the Seven Years' War when he was only fifteen years old. He remained with this regiment for five years, after which he joined the Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia (Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña), an independent military unit composed of Miquelets (Catalan irregular troops).
[edit] From Cádiz to New Spain
On 1767, the Company was sent on a transatlantic journey with destination to the Spanish Colony of New Spain. The objective of the mission was to defend the Inner Northern Provinces of New Spain (Provincias Internas del Norte de Nueva España) from the natives' insurgences. These provinces ran from modern day Guanajuato to New Mexico and from Sonora to Texas.
On May 2, 1767, the Company sailed from Cádiz, Spain, to Cuba, and then to Veracruz, New Spain. Comprised of 98 soldiers under the command of Captain Agustí Callis and three other officials: Pere Fages, Estevan de Vilaseca and the same Alberní, they arrived to their destination on August of that same year. After Veracruz, the Company was moved to Guaymas, Sonora, where they arrived on April, 1768, after having crossed Mexico City, Tepic and San Blas. The trip took almost one year from Barcelona, where they had departed, to Guaymas.
[edit] Fighting the Indians in Sonora and California
Shortly after their arriving to Guaymas, the company, under the command of Colonel Domingo Elizondo were sent to fight against the rebel natives of Pima and Seri, and participate in a campaign in Cerro Prieto. After successfully finishing this campaign, Alberní and the rest of the company were sent to Mexico City and Guadalajara. After that, Alberní was for seven years commander in the province of Nayarit.
In 1772 the company was divided between the First Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia, which remained under the command of Captain Callis, and the Second one, which was assigned under the command of Pere Fages. Fages and his men were from 1769 to 1774 in California under the commander of Gaspar de Portolà. When in 1782 Callis died, Alberní was named Captain of the First Company.
[edit] Way to the Pacific Northwest
On August 29, 1789, the Viceroy of New Spain Manuel Antonio Flores, ordered a detachment of Catalan Volunteers to be sent to Nootka Sound, in Vancouver Island, to reestablish Fort San Miguel built by Esteban José Martínez in 1789 and later abandoned due to the crisis that came up when Martínez seized some English ships that were trading in the region and, some time later, killed a relative of a Nuu-chah-nulth chieftain, allegedly in self defense. The seize of the English ships originated the Nootka Controversy (or Nootka Incident), which almost led to a war between Spain and England for the dispute of the rights on the Pacific Northwest. Spain had sent various expeditions to the zone during the 1774 to 1789 period, and had been the first European nation to explore the area in 1774 with the Majorcan-born officer Juan José Pérez Hernández, piloting the ship Santiago, visited the region. The chosen military detachment was the First Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia, with Captain Pere d'Alberní, who, in that moment, was appointed in Guadalajara, New Spain. These soldiers, with nearly 80 men, traveled from Guadalajara to the Maritime Department of San Blas, which was the starting point from where all the expeditions to the Pacific Northwest sailed. Once in San Blas, the Catalan Volunteers joined the expedition of Francisco de Eliza. This expedition, was formed by three ships: the Concepción, under the command of Eliza, the San Carlos, under the command of Salvador Fidalgo and the Princesa Real, under the command of Manuel Quimper. They left San Blas on February 3, 1790, and arrived at Nootka Island on April 5, 1790, after two months.
During the trip to Nootka Island, he was arrested for 70 days in his cabin of the Concepción for having discussed with a high ranked Spanish officer when defending the rights of his men to be adequately dressed and armed and to be paid all the back-pay they were owed. Probably for that reason, he would not be appointed as Governor of California later on.
When Alberní arrived to Nootka Island he had to rebuild the fort, because it was dismantled after Martínez and his men had abandoned it. Alberní fortified the garrison, placing twenty cannons and distributing his men in key points for the defense of the fort, from the sea and from the land. He built barracks, the house for the commanding officers, the house for the captain, ovens, furnaces, a sickbay, and cultivated all kinds of fruits and vegetables to grant the food supplies for his men. He was the first European to cultivate a vegetable garden in the modern-day British Columbia. He also made a registry of measured temperatures, he created a dictionary of 630 native words with their equivalents in Spanish, and he brew beer with conifers to prevent the scurvy. In short, he built, organized and administrated the fort for the well-being of their inhabitants and the travelers that arrived to its port, while many of his men from the Catalan Company participated in explorations in Alaska and the Juan de Fuca Strait, along with Spanish explorers from other companies.
All the data that Alberní compiled was used later by José Mariano Mociño, a New Spain-born Spanish naturalist, writer of Noticias de Nootka (Spanish for "News from Nootka"), who was in the expedition of Bodega-Quadra in 1792 and Malaspina in 1791 in his scientific voyage around the World. According to Mociño, Alberní successfully gained the esteem and respect from all those who surrounded him, included the natives, whom he flattered with a poem, dedicated to their chief, Maquinna, with music of the Mambrú, a Spanish song, adapted from the French song Marlbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, originally from the War of the Spanish Succession. The letter of the song said:
- Macuina, Macuina, Macuina,
- He's a great prince, friend of us
- Spain, Spain, Spain
- Is friend of Macuina and Nootka
This song became so popular in the region, that José María Narváez heard it from the natives in the other side of Nootka Island and near Point Grey (Narváez arrived to what today is the Vancouver City one year before the English captain George Vancouver). The stay of Alberní in Nootka Island coincided with the period of major activity of the Spanish explorers and travelers from other nationalities in the region.
[edit] Return to Mexico
Once Alberní accomplished the job, and after having been in the fort for two years, he received the order to go back with his company to the Maritime Department of San Blas. He was given by royal order, through the Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, Viceroy of New Spain, the title of governor and commander of Arms of Fort San Miguel in Nootka Island.
In July 1792 he was named lieutenant colonel, and after his assignment in Nootka, he was sent to the Castle of San Juan de Ulúa for 8 months, in Veracruz, as commander of the fort and as Lieutenant-Colonel of the King for the Plaza de Veracruz. After that, Alberní was sent to Guadalajara for two years.
[edit] To California
On April, 1796, by order of the Viceroy of New Spain Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca y Branciforte, marqués de Branciforte, he and his company of 72 men were moved to California to take care of the Spanish military garrisons of Monterrey, Santa Bárbara, San Diego and San Francisco. Across the San Lorenzo River, Alberní founded a town called Villa Branciforte (Spanish for Branciforte Village), in honor of the Viceroy of New Spain. Villa Branciforte later merged with the community of Mission Santa Cruz, which had been founded in 1791 by the Basque Father Fermín Lasuén, and together they formed what is known today as the city of Santa Cruz.
[edit] Interim governor of California
In 1800 he became the Interim Governor of California and overall commander of the four military garrisons that Spain had in the whole of California (Monterrey, Santa Bárbara, San Diego and San Francisco), until a new governor was assigned. He remained in California until his death.
[edit] Death
Alberní died of dropsy at the age of fifty-five in Monterrey, Alta California, on March 11, 1802. He was buried at the Royal Chapel of San Carlos in Monterrey, California. Today, his remains probably lie under the highway that was built nearby some years ago, because his tomb had never been found. Alberní's will, dated December 16, 1801, leaves everything to his wife, Juana Vélez, a native of Tepic, México. The only daughter they had died before him. Sergeant Joaquín Tico from the Volunteers of Catalonia, executor of his will.
[edit] Legacy
Alberni was a person with strong character, courage, diplomatic, and he knew how to manage the problems, even in rough times. There are numerous places named after him both in Canada and Spain:
- Alberni inlet or canal, British Columbia, baptized by Francisco de Eliza.
- Port Alberni, British Columbia, baptized by Captain Richards from H.M.S. Hecate in 1861. Port Alberni is at the head of Alberni inlet.
- Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District, named after Port Alberni.
- Streets in the cities of Vancouver, Canada and Tortosa, Spain, among others.
[edit] See also
- Miquelets
- Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia
- History of British Columbia
- List of pre-statehood governors of California
[edit] References
- Catalans al Canadà (Catalans in Canada), by Angelina Miró, study from the Fundació d'Estudis Històrics de Catalunya (Foundation of Historical Studies of Catalonia)
- Catalans a la Costa Oest del Canadà (Catalans in the West Coast of Canada), study from the Fundació d'Estudis Històrics de Catalunya (Foundation of Historical Studies of Catalonia)
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Complete biography of Pere d'Alberní, by Angelina Miró, from the Casal Català de Vancouver (Vancouver Catalan Centre)
- Information about Friendly Cove and its history from VancouverIsland.com
- Information about his role as Commander of Arms of California between 1796 and 1801, from MilitaryMuseum.org
- Book "Indian Legends of Vancouver Island", by Alfred Carmichael, hosted in Gutenberg.org
- Complete biography of Pere d'Alberní by SomosPrimos.com, a website dedicated to Hispanic heritage and diversity issues
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